Modern aircrafts employing gas turbine engines require high performance engine control systems that deliver enhanced performance and reduced lifecycle cost. Control systems may be optimized by using engine control algorithms that achieve multiple economical and operational objectives. Such control systems are desired for extending engine life, reducing fuel consumption, and enhancing dynamic performance in thrust and power delivery.
For example, prior engine control systems may have aimed to optimize fuel consumption only by attempting to provide a goal thrust response while minimizing fuel consumption for the goal thrust response. However, such approaches to engine control must often manage competing operability and performance objectives by resetting engine exhaust nozzles using transient schedules that are developed off-line from extensive simulations and tests. Such control systems may not optimize all available effectors to achieve a set of performance and operability goals and constraints. Further, these control designs may not fully utilize engine characteristics and dynamic models to optimize (in real-time) engine performance while protecting engine state limits.
Modeling engine characteristics of an aircraft engine, directly or indirectly, may be useful for monitoring and controlling thrust for the engine. The thermal characteristics of the engine can be synthesized or calculated using sensed parameters. Further, thermal characteristics may be estimated by linear or non-linear models of engine components and the components' respective characteristics. Such characteristics may provide information used to determine and/or optimize thrust control commands in running real-time optimization algorithms. Such parameters may be monitored and/or controlled using a control system having a variety of hardware and/or software control elements.
Thusly, a need exists for control systems that control and optimize thrust control of an aircraft engine by real-time coordinating engine effectors that may include fuel flow, exhaust nozzles and variable geometry, thereby achieving optimal performance and operability goals and optimizing engine life, fuel consumption, and dynamic performance.